Kite-surfer meets shark: ‘It coulda taken a chunk!’

It’s a dubious distinction: Justin Worrall is the first person in Florida to be bitten by a shark in 2012. The 19-year-old was kite-surfing near Playa Linda Beach in coastal Brevard County near Cape Canaveral when he “suddenly felt a pinch, a pull and then pain,” reported CBSMiami on March 5.

Bleeding profusely from his wound, Worrall used his kiteboard to get away from the shark and back to the beach where his waiting brothers rushed him to the hospital.

He then spent about four hours there getting his leg cleaned, stitched and bandaged.

Volusia County Beach Patrol reports that a teenage boy and a young girl suffered bites within five minutes of each other Wednesday afternoon. They were both surfing in waist-deep water in the same area, but they weren’t together.

Beach Patrol says the boy was taken by personal vehicle to a nearby hospital with cuts on his calf. The girl was taken by ambulance with a bite to the ankle.

Both victims described their shark as being about 4 or 5 feet long, but authorities says it’s unlikely they were bitten by the same shark.